Gerry Adams on Democracy

You may have missed it, but over the weekend Gerry Adams gave a major speech [link here]. No Oil for Pacifists writes, not completely facetiously, that Adams sounds like a convert to the Bush Doctrine.

Check out, for instance, this excerpt from "the Speech":

For over thirty years the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms. You asserted the legitimacy of the right of the people of this island to freedom and independence. Many of your comrades made the ultimate sacrifice. . .

That struggle can now be taken forward by other means. I say this with the authority of my office as President of Sinn Fein.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

Now there is an alternative. I have clearly set out my view of what that alternative is. The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

I want to use this occasion therefore to appeal to the leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann [the IRA] to fully embrace and accept this alternative. Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?

Here in the US we call this "declaring victory and getting out."

First Hizbollah, then Hamas, now the IRA? What wonders we behold in these days....

Read about it here.

Hat Tip Richard Delevan. Read his excellent blog here.